Justice League of America
The Justice League of America (JLA) is an organizational strike team comprised of the world's most powerful and most influential super heroes. Inspired by the legacy of the Justice Society of America, the team is dedicated to fighting crime, injustice and protecting the Earth from destructive forces. Considered Earth's first public line of defense against terrestrial and extra-terrestrial, inter-dimensional and supernatural threats, the team's reputation has grown over the years to be now considered the pinnacle of heroic potential, with the organization serving as a public example for the rest of the heroic community to aim for. History What is considered to be the first unofficial gathering of the group occurred when White Martians attempted to invade the Earth, prompting the then-fledgling hero Flash (Barry Allen) into bringing together Martian Manhunter, Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, the Challengers of the Unknown, the Blackhawk Squadron, Plastic Man, Congo Bill, Rex, the Wonder Dog, Vigilante (Gregory Sanders) and U.S. pilot Hal Jordan (who at the time had yet to become Earth's Green Lantern). This collection of heroes staved the Martian invasion but went back to their separate lives soon after. The official formation of the Justice League began when Earth was invaded by Appellaxian warriors sent to the planet to see who could conquer the planet first; as a means of determining who would become the new ruler of their home planet. Each alien warrior attacked a different portion of Earth, which drew the individual attention of the Flash, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter. While most of the Appellaxian invaders were defeated by the superheroes individually, the heroes themselves individually fell prey to the final competitor and they soon discovered that only by working together could they defeat him. Superman and Batman joined them in defeating the remaining Appellaxians. Afterwards, the group decided that they should form a permanent organization to confront menaces that required a similar pooling of resources, and dubbed themselves the Justice League of America. While the old Justice Society of America headquarters in Gotham City was originally considered, Batman did not wish the group to reside within "his city" and the group instead set up a secret base within a cave just outside of Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, with Green Arrow's secret financial backing. In their early adventures together the Justice League would battle Xotar the Weapons Master, Professor Ivo and his creation Amazo, Despero, and invaders from Magic-Land. When the group was enslaved by Kanjar Ro, they would be rescued by Adam Strange who would become a regular ally of the group. The group would next invite the Green Arrow to join the group just prior to getting embroiled in a battle against the alien Xandor. While battling the Lord of Time the Justice League would be summoned by the Timeless Ones to prevent Felix Faust from collecting the Red Jar of Calythos, Green Bell of Uthool, and the Silver Wheel of Nyorlath to free Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast; three ancient demons that once ruled the Earth. The group would next defeat Doctor Light, and battle robot duplicates of themselves on the planet Skran. With The Atom newly recruited onto the team, the JLA prevented the merging of Earth with a parallel universe and have yet another reality spanning adventure when they are attacked by the Crime Syndicate of America; evil versions of themselves hailing from Earth-Three. The League manages to best them in combat by learning of a single word that can shunt them back to their home dimension. The Justice League would next recruit Hawkman into their ranks and attempted to recruit Metamorpho, refused outright membership but accepted reserve status with the group. The JLA and the Justice Society of America are next targeted by T.O. Morrow who builds the Red Tornado to murder members of the JSA, and duplicates of Jean Loring, Steve Trevor, Hawkgirl, Mera, and Midge to murder JLA members Atom, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Aquaman, and Snapper Carr respectively. This plot would ultimately be thwarted by the combined efforts of the Justice League, Justice Society and Red Tornado. The sentient star Aquarius soon after attempted to get revenge on his masters by destroying the Multiverse by using Starman's Gravity Rod. This lead to another team-up between the JLA and the JSA. Although the two team's manage to destroy Aquarius, it was at the cost of Black Canary (Dinah Drake Lance)'s husband, Larry Lance. The team maintained their hidden base in Happy Harbor until Snapper Carr was tricked into betraying the headquarters' location to the Joker, resulting in his resignation from the team. Following this, the financial backing of Bruce Wayne enabled the team to establish a satellite in geosynchronous orbit above the Earth, 22,300 miles above the equator and the team soon expanded their roster further to include Elongated Man, Zatanna, Firestorm, Red Tornado and Hawkgirl. An attack by the Secret Society of Super-Villains, which included The Wizard, The Floronic Man, Star Sapphire, Professor Zoom, and Blockbuster, saw the villains switch bodies with Superman, Batman, Hal Jordan, Zatanna and Wonder Woman. While the villains are defeated, the fact that they now knew their identities remained a problem. A small group within the league; consisting of Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkman, Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Elongated Man and Zatanna, decided without input of the league's leaders Superman and Batman that the best way to solve this problem was to magically erase that knowledge from the villains' minds. This practice continued until Elongated Man's wife, Sue Dibny, was captured and raped by Doctor Light after he broke onboard the satellite. Recognizing the villain's unrepentance, the group of heroes had Zatanna also attempt to alter his mind and change his morality; however, due to her inexperience, she accidentally lobotomized him; making him a more inept villain instead. In addition, the team was forced to erase Batman's memory of the events after he interrupted and attempted to stop their work. As the Batman resigned from the JLA due to the team's refusal to embark on a rescue mission into Markovia, the underpinnings of the League began to strain, as most of its most important members found themselves devoting less time to the JLA for a variety of reasons; Flash experienced a personal tragedy in his life while Superman and Wonder Woman were committed to their own caseloads. When the satellite was destroyed by the Green Martians, Aquaman decided that the destruction of the satellite was a way to disband the JLA and start over, subsequently reforming the League to included himself, Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, Elongated Man, Vixen, Gypsy, Vibe, and Steel. With their headquarters based in Detroit, this era is referred to as "Justice League Detroit". After reconnecting with his wife Mera, Aquaman chose to leave the team, turning over leadership to J'onn J'onzz. Upon encountering an extra-terrestrial life form in the old JLA Sanctuary, a distress call sent out to all members reunited the old League with the new to contain the threat. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Black Canary joined forces with the current team, resulting in Batman rejoining the League to lead the inexperienced heroes. The team lasted for a few years, though it never acquired the stature that its previous incarnation had attained and the Justice League Detroit disbanded after a battle with Professor Ivo. When the New God known as Darkseid used evangelist G. Gordon Godfrey to discredit the world's heroes and turn the public against them, a team of heroes stepped up to oppose him at the Lincoln Memorial. This would inspire Doctor Fate to assemble a new Justice league team, realizing that the world would always need a Justice League. Established to represent a more global presence, the team consisted of Doctor Fate, Batman, Mister Miracle, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel, Black Canary, the heroic Doctor Light, Booster Gold, and Oberon, with the financial backing of Maxwell Lord and the United Nations. Renaming themselves "Justice League International". Originally operating from Metropolis, the team later gained embassies around the world. Captain Atom and Rocket Red IV joined the team as Captain Marvel and Doctor Fate left. Despite their strength, the team was often beleaguered by bickering between its members to the point that Batman quit the team and passed leadership over to J'onn J'onzz, although he would later return. Other members soon joined, including Green Flame, Icemaiden, and Hawkman and Hawkwoman are recruited after Black Canary quit (although Hawkman would quit soon after). After a massive recruitment drive following an invasion attempt by the Alien Alliance, Maxwell Lord splits the team into two charters; Justice League America in New York City and Justice League Europe in Paris (later moving to London). After a number of tragedies, wherein the American team fails to stop Doomsday, Maxwell Lord is shot in an assassination attempt and later possessed by Dreamslayer, and members Silver Sorceress and Ice (Tora Olafsdotter) are killed by Dreamslayer and the Overmaster respectively, the U.N. withdraws their support from the teams. While Wonder Woman takes leadership of what remained of Justice League America and uses the Overmaster's orbiting escape pod as a base, Captain Atom leads a rogue group called Extreme Justice and Martian Manhunter leads a covert operations team of younger heroes called Justice League Task Force. Following a very public invasion of Bialya by Extreme Justice, all three teams were disbanded. When a team of superpowered aliens, dubbed the Hyperclan, arrived on Earth and offered to transform the world into a paradise, they were revealed to actually be a group of White Martians bent on global domination. Teaming up Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash (Wally West), Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), and the Martian Manhunter defeated them. Deciding to create a newer, stronger, JLA, the team united and built a new base, the Watchtower, on the surface of the moon to act as a sentry post against Interstellar threats. As the team faces various onslaughts from the Kingdom of Heaven and the Key, they gain Green Arrow (Conner Hawke) as a new member shortly before Wonder Woman dies at the hands of Neron. In opposition to the new League, Lex Luthor, who had acquired the Rock of Ages, decides to form a new Injustice Gang, consisting of himself, Circe, Joker, Ocean Master, Mirror Master, and Doctor Light and builds a secret lair for the Gang on an orbiting satellite. Building hard light holograms in the form of the Justice League members, the Injustice Gang commenced an attack on Star City, massacring many people before the League could stop the holograms. While tracking the culprits behind the hard light constructs, Green Arrow is corrupted by Circe into becoming a mole, while Batman manages to contact Mirror Master and convinces him to become a turncoat. The JLA also recruits Plastic Man to also infiltrate the satellite posing as the Joker. As Superman and Martian Manhunter attempt to infiltrate the satellite, Aquaman, Flash, and Green Lantern discover a future where, after Superman had destroyed the Rock of Ages to defeat Luthor, Darkseid had invaded and conquered the Earth. Returning to their timeline to prevent Superman from destroying the rock, Luthor uses it to resurrect everyone killed in the Star City massacre. As a result, while the Injustice Gang is defeated, Luthor was untouchable and allowed to go free. In preparation for Darkseid's invasion, the team recruits new members: Steel, Big Barda, Orion, Plastic Man, Hippolyta (who had taken up her daughter's role as Wonder Woman), and Huntress while inviting the press up to the Watchtower to cover the event. At that exact moment, the villain Prometheus chooses to make his entrance and manages to systematically take down the League by exploiting each of their weaknesses, before a humbled Batman is able to finally turn the tables. The angel Zauriel joins the team shortly thereafter. When the ethically questionable mind wiping that the JLA performed during the "Satellite years" was discovered and undone by Despero, the breakdown of relationships reached its zenith and the team disbanded again, leaving it to the Martian Manhunter to rebuild the team with Superman's blessing. While in the process of this, J'onn is attacked by Superboy-Prime, who also blows the Watchtower apart. While Aquaman and John Stewart attempt to keep the League going, they ultimately fail due to the numerous problems and issues that were being created by the fast approaching Infinite Crisis incident. Several months following the Infinite Crisis incident, Firestorm reorganizes the team, inviting Ambush Bug, Bulleteer, Firehawk, and Super-Chief to participate. However, this League lasted very briefly and disbanded after fighting a renegade Skeets that resulted in the death of Super-Chief. One year following the Infinite Crisis, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman decide to officially revive the League as part of their duties as the unofficial "Trinity", however, events surrounding the return of Red Tornado causes a league to form on its own and the Trinity settle with allowing the new group to operate as the new Justice League of America. Building a new satellite to operate as the League's new headquarters, the heroes had the satellite linked by a transporters to an embassy in Washington, D.C. known as the Hall of Justice. Involvement *During the Bludhaven alert, the Bludhaven Avenger will generate illusions of Power Girl, Hal Jordan, Aquaman and Hawkman to fight the player party. Heroes *Heroes are recruited into the Justice League and are allowed to access the functions of the JLA Watchtower. They also receive missions from various members of the Justice League. Oracle is the main contact for the team. * A small JLA strike force consisting of Steel, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Red Tornado, is sent to assist the player group in battling Doomsday during the Smallville alert. *Heroes can obtain the Justice League Logo as an Emblem if they have completed all of their storyline missions. Members Iconics/Bosses Mobs Vendors/Taskmasters Affiliated Allies Equipment *Emblem of the Justice League *Justice League Comic Art Poster Set *Watchtower Holographic Tokens (Investigations) *Collections: The Watchtower Trivia * Justice League of America first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #28 (February/March 1960). *One of the team's earliest battle was when Happy Harbor was invaded by Starro. When Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and the Martian Manhunter found that Happy Harbor resident Lucas "Snapper" Carr was not taken over by Starro due to the lime solution that was spread on his lawn, the group easily defeated the alien. As thanks, Snapper was made an honorary member of the team and would accompany them on many other adventures. *The Phantom Stranger actually officially joined the JLA just before the "Satellite Era". Although his active status is hardly noticeable as the Stranger mostly appeared at events of a cosmic nature. *Villains like Doctor Destiny and Brainwave who could easily discover the League's identities failed to do so, not because they didn't think of it, but because the League erased their memories when they did discover it. *While appearing as a benign benefactor, Maxwell Lord's motivations to fund the JLI was actually due to fearing the growing influence metahumans had on society. As an executive businessman, Lord initiated a plan to undermine the Justice League and make it ineffectual. While the JLI eventually splintered the Justice League returned and Lord ultimately failed in his endeavor. Secretly assuming control of the covert government agency Checkmate, Lord intended to next create an anti-metahuman contingency plan that resulted in the OMAC Project. *'Justice League Antarctica' was a branch of Justice League America and Justice League Europe. Made up of former members of the Injustice League, Maxwell Lord felt that it would be prudent to keep an eye on these inept characters and so invited them to join an Antarctica branch of the Justice League. Some time later, Maxwell Lord reviewed their case files and decided that the Justice League Antarctica branch served no true purpose, and disbanded them. Several of the team members remained on the JL roster as reservists. *Years after the dissolution of Justice League International, Maxwell Lord attempts to put together a new team called the Super Buddies. This team featured Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Elongated Man, Fire, Mary Marvel and Sue Dibny but were very short-lived due to their incompetence. *There exists an infamous moment between Guy Gardner and the Batman when Guy frequently challenged the hero for authority of the Justice League International group based solely on his ego and machismo. The tension climaxed with Guy challenging the Batman to a fight and the vigilante knocks him out with a single hit to the face. Dubbed the "One Punch!" incident, Black Canary immediately took a photo of Guy's unconscious body and faxed the incident to the rest of the hero community. Since then, the One Punch! incident has been frequently referred to particularly when the Batman becomes involved with a Green Lantern. *One of the Martian Manhunter's most essential roles in the Justice League, due to his keen intellect, strategic mind and psychic powers, is to serve as a kind of switchboard operator; keeping the other members of the League in mental communication through him to coordinate strategies and maneuvers during battle. He also often serves as dispatcher, choosing members of the League and teleporting them to where they're needed as the situation demands. Gallery michaelwashburnwatchtowerrobotsmall.jpg File:JLAvrsAvatarTech.jpg File:JLAScreen.png File:JLA1.gif File:SmallvilleJLA.jpg File:Aquaman1.png File:JLA1.png File:JLA2.png File:DCUOLJLA.jpg File:LegendsComicJLA1.jpg File:LegendsComicJLA2.jpg File:LegendsComicJLA3.jpg File:LegendsComicJLA4.jpg File:LegendsComicJLA5.jpg File:LegendsComicJLA6.jpg File:LegendsComicJLA7.jpg See also * JLA Watchtower *The Watchtower: An Opportunity *Headquarters (PvP) *Watchtower Containment Facility (Alert) *Watchtower Containment Facility (PvP) External links * Wikipedia * DC Database Category:Groups Category:JLA